


Boulevard Nights

by Pathologies



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Creepy Fluff, Gen, M/M, but for now enjoy this back and forth between existential horror and gay millenial anxiety, might be multi chapter later if I feel like expanding on it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 08:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10532388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pathologies/pseuds/Pathologies
Summary: Wouldn't it be great to sleep this once?





	

Home again, home again.

 

Gregg shoved a lockpick into his buzzer to ring himself up as he staggered himself home from the Snack Falcon. It was the weekend...people usually were making plans this time, having whole days off, doing things. That was a whole other universe, a universe of weekends and more than minimum wage. Gregg was just happy to come home and see what was in his apartment. The drudging walk home between the Snack Falcon and his apartment was a blip in his energetic life...on his usual days. Seeing Angus revived him every time.

 

“You beat me home Cap'n!”  
  
He could smell lasagna cooking. Gregg rushed to bring himself into the soft squishy warmth he knew. Angus was a soft universe, a soft plant he could land on and feel free to explore after each day.

 

“Hey Bug,” he could hear that voice even through his face buried in the softness of that big body at work making dinner.

 

“Smells great, like I'm ready for whatever hot and sticky mess you put into my mouth.”  
  
A pause. He could hear the red coming through his words, “Gregg. Oh my god no.”  
  
They didn't bother talking about how work was anymore. They knew how it was: boring or it sucked. Gregg didn't want to rehash something they had to do. He just ate and enjoyed putting his knees on his couch and looking at the contrast between the argyle of his boyfriend's strong yet soft form and the leather covering his wiry frame.

 

They had a date with some sword anime tonight. And he could see and hear and smell it all: the tv's buzzed words coming through, the afterscent of the tomato paste on the plates, the subtle clink as the moved each time, each shift of their clothes, his own breath, Angus talking to him. He could just feel so much, it was like a superpower, like being too strong that you can't--

 

“Uh, Bug?”  
  
“Huh, what?”  
  
“I know things are different. You and Mae. Honestly I'm kind of worried, since you know...”  
  
He winced, he knew what he meant. He knew what he was talking about, he searched for an answer, “Yeah! Yeah...I'm different I know, but like I'm the same? If that makes sense. I'm Gregg. Just Gregg with two gs.”  
  
“Babe, you don't have to hide anything...”  
  
“I can't hide anything from you.” he said, feeling it half true, “I'll be better soon. But like. Oh my god. I'm just thinking of our apartment in Bright Harbor. The one in a bad neighborhood. Maybe we can get one that has like junk leftover and I can fix it up and we can make it ours. Like, maybe I can get stuff from around Bright Harbor--”  
  
“Gregg.” Angus tried to smack his boyfriend back into reality. This was just a daily thing.

 

“You don't wanna think about it just yet?”  
  
“I just wanna focus on getting there.”  
  
In Ordinary Gregg world: Gregg would push on, wondering why Angus doesn't want to think about their future with his same hopeful frames. Angus would be the practical one, like he should, but Gregg wants to talk and fantasize. Angus tries to shut it down but Gregg gets upset and so does Angus. They later make up and kiss and exchange I love yous.

 

New Gregg world: “Yeah, me too.”  
  
Gregg curled up closer, looking at Angus getting involved with the show as it nears its end. Gregg smiled as his hand began a two finger march up Angus' stomach. Gregg's a general, scaling Angus hill. The bigger man didn't say anything, other than shift and attempt to nudge the hand away. But no use in batting back the ascent. At the end, General Gregg Hands ended its ascent and gave a hug to the big guy.

 

Bed time came sooner than he thinks. But that's the best part, where he and Angus climb in and he got to see Angus every which way, smell, and touch before the eventual sleep overtakes Angus.

 

“You're not going to sleep in your leather jacket, right?”  
  
“No...” amused.

 

Angus remained serious, “Sometimes you forget to take it off and it's not really healthy for your body temperature. And the friction chafes off the leather.”  
  
“Ohhhhh my god,” he laughed, “I won't!”  
  
“I know how much you like that jacket. I want you to keep it as long as possible.”  
  
Gregg can hear how tired Angus must be getting so he grinned, patting his chest, “Capn now you know this means you have to watch me take it off slowly...”  
  
“Gregg please,” he has that tiny smile Gregg likes to see.

 

He slowly unzipped, giving a wriggly striptease before he sheds the jacket and comes crawling in his white a shirt, climbing atop Angus as he brings his arms around in an embrace. “Now I have to like, tell you a bedtime story.”  
  
“I like those.” Angus beamed.

 

The bedtime story included kissing and Gregg tickling in between until Angus eventually grew exhausted and cuddled up in bed with a muttering of 'goodnight babe'.  
  
“Goodnight Angus,” he watched Angus fall asleep next to him.

 

It was him and the ceiling. Ah ceiling, almost an intimate gentleman of the night for Gregg. Many thoughts shared between him and ceiling.

 

He watched Angus snooze next to him as he imagined the life they would have...would they have it? Or was it...

 

_Look at him sleeping_ , he thought. _He's so peaceful so cute so sexy so--_

 

_Then there's you_.

 

His eyes fixed to the ceiling.

 

_I don't know what I'm doing. I'm trying. But like am I different from who I was in high school?_

 

He sighed.

 

_I'm no good for him_ , he thought. _He'll catch on when we move on to Bright Harbor._

 

He looked at the ceiling. _No, that's stupid. But what if..._

 

_Enough of this_ , he rolled out of bed and tossed on his jacket. He wouldn't sleep for awhile. He could hear every small thing: Angus' snore, the shift of the blankets, the creak of this old building, the air conditioning—he had to get out.

 

Gregg felt up his jacket. Two knives, like always. It was a smart thing at night. Casey was still gone...Casey...Mae, almost....

 

He smiled and mouthed 'sleep tight, Capn'.

 

Downstairs the streets were pretty deserted, only a few lights were on since mostly everything in Possum Springs began to shutdown after midnight.

 

The lamps above kept an eerie glow. If it weren't for the stars above, Gregg would walk among a total slab of darkness. Yet the streetlights gave no real comfort. They just kept their glow that hummed, Gregg squinted to see if he could spot moths flying to them.

 

Moths...that thought carried some kind of significance, but Gregg lost it.

 

It just felt good to get outside and not just lay in bed, arguing with ceiling. He should scrounge up some garbage, that always made him happy. Or maybe just run to Mae's house, flinging himself into her window and shake her awake! God, he could imagine the confused look on her face, the eventual okays since Mae was a good bro. She could...

 

Wow, he got as far as the Food Donkey without thinking. Gregg laughed to himself. Aw man, he really did it.

 

He felt uneasy, like he had to rest against the Donkey. It wasn't the darkness itself, but like he did something really stupid. Not only stupid, but he felt like something waited for him. In the Food Donkey.

Come inside, it called to him. Just hang out for a bit.

 

Gregg considered it for about one second before he went ahead inside. His impulse control and general senses weren't working great tonight.

 

It didn't look like the Food Donkey, not the broken down one or the one before it went out of business. He saw lightbulbs, bare and glowing as they hung from the ceiling. He heard the low humming even before he could see anything.

 

Moths. At first he thought he saw maybe dozens when he paced slowly across the floor. But no. It was more than hundreds, perhaps thousands. He didn't bother to count beyond dozens. His best guess had to be thousands.

 

But the more he looked at them and the lights the less he felt he was actually in the Food Donkey and more like he stood someplace else, looking up into someone else's ceiling.

 

Maybe it wasn't a ceiling at all.

 

Oh god, what a thought he laughed to himself. But not too much of a thought. He looked at it, really looked at it and he felt the cool air hitting him. Not only that but he could see the moths weren't moth sized. Not entirely moths either. Oh god no, on second look they didn't look like moths at all.

 

No his eyes were filling in the missing information his head had refused to see. Not moth-sized moths he saw. And those weren't lightbulbs. The light felt too distant, too big...

 

Well...he can try to make sure he didn't pick up some trick perspective. Angus would say something like that. Only much more eloquent in a growling voice.

 

Gregg pawed a knife from his jacket and flung it towards the closest light. It should have hit it. But as Gregg saw, truly saw, it kept sailing. How could a knife go sailing so far into the sky? It was a glint now, far from him and there still was no way it could hit it.

 

A giddiness crept up on him, not a good one, like all the sensations he picked up all night thrust into him again. This didn't make a lick of sense. And it didn't matter to it if it did.

 

So Gregg did what he could only do for that moment. He waved his hands, furiously jumping up and down as he cried out, “Auuuuuuugh!!! Too bad you didn't choke on my knife!”  
  
As he leaped up and down, one time must have been too high for he began to lift off the floor which didn't make up a floor at all but a roof.

 

Oh yeah he saw it now: he was floating. Maybe falling. Maybe flying. He wanted to stop. Gregg paddled in vain as he rushed harder and harder until he

 

flopped out the grocery door.

 

He rolled over, dust kicking up on his jacket. He laughed, covering his face. “Oh what the hell?” The only thing to say to something like that.

 

He got up, fishing his jacket as he felt only one knife this time. Maybe it was still in the Donkey but...no chance in exploring again tonight.

 

Gregg walked home, only to find Angus in a sloppy sweater get up. Gregg's arms came into Angus' midsection in a tight hug.

 

“Gregg? Where did you...I was seriously worried.”  
  
And he heard himself begin to lose control and start babbling, “I know I know I keep screwing up. I wanna do right but I don't know I guess I'm garbage on the sidewalk. And you deserve everything Angus you really do I don't wanna”  
  
“Gregg.”  
  
He saw he began to get upset, his eyes watering up. He breathed in, a wet slobbering sound, nothing flattering at all. “...I'm sorry.”  
  
Angus began to guide him inside, his big hand rubbing his back in reassuring circles, “Bug...the universe has so many unpredictable factors. It's big beyond the understanding of our ordinary sense of scale, with events that could wipe this planet in an instant.”  
  
Gregg sniffed, “I always like it when you talk like that.”  
  
Angus sensed no irony in that, smiling, “We're atoms, chemicals. But Gregg. I wouldn't want to work so hard to make this hard with anyone else.”  
  
“Yeah?”

 

“That should be evidence enough, right?”  
  
“...ha,” he nestled into his bigger partner, “Even if I can't understand some of that stuff you know...I feel like you make so much sense.”  
  
“You wanna talk about it some more?”  
  
“Yeah. No. I think we did,” he raised his head, “I don't even know why I was upset.” It was the truth. Everything began to feel so distant, maybe that whole incident at the Donkey was a distant flight of fancy. “I think I had a serious down. I'm exhausted now.”  
  
“We should go back to bed.”

 

Angus nodded, “Good idea. Before you catch something.”  
  
Gregg let out a sheepish grin, “Ohhhh my god. Angus, like I can't move. You're gonna have to carry me. Or leave me here to get eaten in a cool death.”  
  
Angus sighed, “Gregg...” The bear scooped up his smaller partner as they went into the elevator. Gregg had fallen asleep before they reached their floor.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I had to get something out for this video game, it was such a sweet poetic little game. Gregg's situation kind of hits pretty close to home honestly, so this is kind of paying my due to this game and its creators in my own way.


End file.
